Halflife2

[Great Rumbler]

And in several months, new episode 2 comes out! Episodic content is... actually taking about as long to develop as the regular kind. So... what makes this any different than standard sequels that have been around since forever again?

There was six years between Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2. The time span between Half-Life 2 and Episode 1 was only a year-and-a-half. The gap between Episode 1 and Episode 2 looks to be about one year. So, the time between Half-Life 2 and Episode 3 will probalby be between three-and-a-half and four years. So, to answer your question, in total the wait for the full episodic game will be only slighlty less than the wait for a "full" sequel, only the game is broken into parts that you can play during that four year wait.